A celebration of Ronnie Spector and Darlene Love! (1 Viewer)

old spice

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The song 'Take Me Home Tonight' by Eddie Money popped up on my Discover Weekly last week. It did nothing at all in the UK, but I must've been vaguely familiar with it as I knew the basic tune. I thought it typical 80s AOR fodder - catchy, sprightly, but ultimately throwaway. Throwaway, that is, until Fabulous Veronica struts in and injects disproportionate gravitas while doing little more than reciting her most immortal refrain over and over:



(She's captivating in that video, too.) Caught me way off-guard given that she's uncredited, and it made me realise just how much I adore this woman's voice! The Ronettes had a straight shot at being the greatest girl group of all-time imo: Ronnie's ability to convey weariness and grit under a guise of innocence + Phil's grandiloquent Wall of Sound = musical heaven. Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes... is a sorely underrated record, boasting possibly the most perfect song ever made and the lesser-appreciated majesties of 'Baby, I Love You', 'Walking in the Rain', 'I Wonder' (those strings! my heart!), etc. It's a shame Phil was such a fucking cunt and that's as far as they got in terms of releasing albums.

I'm not overly familiar with Ms. Spector's solo offerings, but I've long admired her take on this minor punk classic which she moulds into an unexpected tearjerker:



And even though they don't show, the scars are so old... :(

And ofc, there's her superior reading of 'Say Goodbye to Hollywood'! With the ascendance of my Heavenly Fathers Prince and Bowie, Bruce Springsteen is the only human left on planet Earth I legit stan, and Ronnie + my beloved E-Street Band is as magical a combination as one can find post-Phil Spector going full fucktard. I wish they'd cut a whole album together.

This whole train of thought reminded me that the E Street Band also gave a truly joyous assist to another escapee from the Spector stable, Miss Darlene Love:



I shouldn't say this because I'm now a card-carrying Friend of the Lambs™, but Darlene is forever my Queen of Christmas. She has my favourite festive song ever (the obvious one) and this here is surely in my top five. I've been foisting it upon dinner guests at Chez Spice every Dec 25 for the last decade and to this day have no idea why it wasn't much bigger given the Home Alone 2 tie-in. Stupid public.

Darlene and the Blossoms also have one of the ATG girl group hits in 'He's a Rebel', though for some reason they saw it credited to the Crystals instead. Their only other song that I'm familiar with is a lovely little lost classic which makes me want to learn more:



Anyway, just wanted to take a moment to shout-out these ladies, esp. as we're approaching a season where we'll hear both more often. These are the two finest girl-group vocalists ever imo (with apologies to their obvious successor Mel B who just wasn't given a fair shot :(), and if there was any justice in the world they'd have been massive solo stars in their own right. As recent events prove, however, just no longer exists if it ever did at all so please chime in with appropriate levels of appreciation and/or recommendations instead, thank you.
 
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I'll start with Darlene. Completely agree that she has the Christmas classic bar none.

If you aren't familiar with her solo Spector produced stuff that is a good place to start, especially Stumble And Fall, Strange Love and Long Way To Be Happy:



Darlene ended up with Spector again in the mid 70s after her contract was sold, but it did result in the glorious Lord, If You're A Woman.

The other two tracks by The Blossoms on this wonderful comp of floptastic girl group numbers are also excellent, though more in the Northern style:



Written and produced by sometime beau Bill Medley:



Soundtrack nostalgia:

 
My top 10 Darlene:

1. He's A Rebel (The Crystals)
2. He's Sure The Boy I Love (The Crystals)
3. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
4. Not Too Young To Get Married (Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans)
5. (Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry
6. Why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Hearts? (Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans)
7. A Fine, Fine Boy
8. That's When The Tears Start (The Blossoms)
9. All Alone On Christmas
10. Good, Good Lovin' (The Blossoms)

My top 10 Ronnie:

1. Be My Baby (The Ronettes)
2. Baby I Love You (The Ronettes)
3. (The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up (The Ronettes)
4. Walking In The Rain (The Ronettes)
5. Say Goodbye To Hollywood (with The E Street Band)
6. You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory
7. Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love (Veronica)
8. I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine (The Ronettes)
9. Do I Love You (The Ronettes)
10. Farewell To A Sex Symbol
 
Ronnie's Siren album is probably her best solo project.

I believe she tried to get an album of Marshall Crenshaw tunes off the ground in the late 1980s but she couldn't get a label to invest. It ended up as an EP, released in 2003. His brand of peppy Pop Rock really suited her.

Any Ronnie Top 10 should include "You Baby" for the bedroom sigh part alone...
 
I did not realise that the Something's Gonna Happen EP was recorded so long before!

You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory is a favourite of mine too. It was first released around the turn of the century on the She Talks To Rainbows EP, which was produced by Joey Ramone and I think is the best of her later recordings:



The original EP didn't have the live track and had more tasteful artwork.

All I Want is my favourite new recording from The Last Of The Rock Stars, which is otherwise much more patchy:



Ode To LA is good as well. The Raveonettes were involved in this one:

 
I really like her version of 'Don't Worry Baby'. It was originally written for her, so it's a nice full circle moment to have that recording.
 
Alright, I had today off so decided to put in the work via mah Beats as I was running errands around town! Thanks to all for chiming in, esp @FetchFugly who I'm guessing has some sort of PhD in 60s girl groups? :disco: That Darlene 'Best Of' was a wonderful recommendation! Very silly of me for not having delved in before tbh. She's a diamond, and as I'm a complete sucker for lists I too will produce a top ten:

  1. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
  2. He's a Rebel [The Crystals]
  3. Good, Good Lovin' [The Blossoms]
  4. All Alone on Christmas
  5. My Heart Beats a Little Faster
  6. (Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry
  7. Why Do Lovers Break Each Others Hearts? [Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans]
  8. Long Way to Be Happy
  9. Strange Love
  10. Deep into My Heart [The Blossoms]

I only knew half of these (1-4 + 6) already. 'My Heart Beats a Little Faster' is the kind of vocal that makes me wish our Darlene had taken a trip down to Muscle Shoals in her post-Spector years and truly unleashed herself on record. Can you imagine? Also, 'Long Way to Be Happy' is hitting 2024 me hard. Special mentions to 'Lord, If You're a Woman' (LISTEN TO YO SISTAH!) which is as delicious as claimed, though I wish Nina Simone had gotten hold of it at some stage in her career and torn it a new one with the VENOM that only she could supply. Also 'Ooo-Wee Baby' is the kinda Hicksville jam that gets me shakin' mah hips like no tomorrow - I will certainly be adding it to fun-time playlists.

I tried coming up with a top ten for Ronnie, but it pretty much turned into a Ronettes list. :/ I'll do the group by themselves:

  1. Be My Baby
  2. I Wonder
  3. I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine
  4. Baby, I Love You
  5. Walking in the Rain
  6. You Baby @syl 😘
  7. Is This What I Get for Loving You?
  8. Do I Love You?
  9. Why Don't They Let Us Fall in Love?
  10. (The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up

There's a propulsive urgency to the yearning of 'I Wonder' that I find... well, wondrous - esp. in tandem with those heart-fluttering strings. And I think there's a strong case for 'I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine' being the third part of an aural triptych alongside 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'' and 'River Deep-Mountain High' representing the Wall of Sound's absolute apotheosis. It's the least of the three, but we're dealing with 🐐s here so that ain't no slight. What imagination, seriously. Incomparable.

You know, I always thought it was patently obvious that the Supremes were the greatest girl group of all-time by a country mile. Looking at that top ten, I... wonder!

Ronnie's solo career is harder for me to get a handle on. What's with some of these album/EP covers? Could the budget for RONNIE SPECTOR (put some respect on this name!) not extend beyond MS Paint in the 00s? Siren doesn't appear to be on Spotify, and nothing else that I've listened to approaches my love for 'You Can't Put Your Arms Around a Memory' or even 'Say Goodbye to Hollywood', sadly. I did enjoy her 'Don't Worry Baby' a lot (and I was sceptical going in cos the Beach Boys song is one of my very faves by them). I'm assuming the Marshall Crenshaw EP refers to Something's Gonna Happen? In which case, yes, I agree that the sound suits her well (on 'Whenever You're on My Mind' and 'Communication' in particular).

Is one to assume that you guys don't care much for Unfinished Business? After failing to find Siren, I gave the whole of this one a spin instead and - terrible cover of 'Burning Love' aside - I actually kinda like it? Very 80s, but it has enough big choruses + her cooing 'oooooh ooooh' and 'wooooooah-ooooh' over everything (no other vocalist in music does this better), which is pretty much all I want from a Ronnie record. 'Love on a Rooftop', 'True to You', 'Who Can Sleep', 'Heart Song', 'Good Love Is Hard to Find' - all these are old spice-approved.
 
All Alone On Christmas and Baby Please Come Home are seriously incredible songs. Almost TOO GOOD. But that's all I know by her. If she has anything else as good as those then I need it NOW. I'll take a listen to ones that have been mentioned later
 

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